Written by Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – It was a difficult time for life on Earth. Uncontrolled global warming caused by a cataclysmic volcano in Siberia led to the worst mass extinction ever – possibly wiping out 90% of species – approximately 252 million years ago at the end of the Permian period.
Unlike the asteroid 66 million years ago that wiped out the dinosaurs, this extinction occurred over a long period of time, with species disappearing one by one as conditions worsened. Fossils unearthed in South Africa paint a picture of the drama, scientists said Monday, telling the story of a predator that for generations migrated to other parts of the world in a desperate, and ultimately failed, attempt to survive.
This beast, a saber-toothed mammal the size of a tiger called Inostrancevia, was known only from fossils unearthed in the northwestern corner of Russia bordering the Arctic Sea until new remains were discovered on a farm in central South Africa.
Fossils show that Inostrancevia left their place of origin and migrated over time—possibly hundreds or thousands of years—about 7,000 miles (12,000 km) across Earth’s ancient supercontinent at the time the continents were currently united. Inostrancevia fills an apex predator ecological niche in southern Africa that was left empty after the other four species disappeared.
“That didn’t last long, though,” said paleontologist Christian Kammerer of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science, lead author of the study published in the journal Current Biology, noting that Inostrancevia and all of its close relatives disappeared in the mass extinction. . This is called the “Big Dead”.
“Therefore, they have no living descendants, but are members of a larger group called synapsids, which includes mammals as living representatives,” added Kammerer.
Inostrancevia is part of a group of animals called protomammals which combine reptile and mammal-like features. It was 10 to 13 feet (3–4 m) long, about the size of a Siberian tiger, but with a relatively larger and elongated skull and large razor-like teeth.
“I suspect these animals primarily kill prey with their saber-like fangs and cut off chunks of flesh with their incisors or, if small enough, swallow the prey whole,” Kammerer said.
Inostrancevia’s body had an unusual stature typical of proto-mammals, neither as stretched as reptiles nor as upright as mammals but somewhere in between, with long forelimbs and mostly erect hind limbs. They also lack the facial muscles of mammals and will not produce milk.
“Whether this animal was furred or not is still an open question,” said Kammerer.
The mass extinctions, which occurred over a million years or so, paved the way for the appearance of the dinosaurs in the late Triassic period. The supervolcano released lava flows across most of Eurasia and pumped carbon dioxide into the atmosphere for thousands of years. This causes global warming, oxygen depletion in the ocean and atmosphere, ocean acidification and global desertification.
Apex predators are particularly vulnerable to extinction because they need the most food and space.
“They tend to take a relatively long time to mature and have few offspring. When ecosystems are disrupted and prey supplies are reduced or available habitat is limited, large predators are disproportionately affected,” said Kammerer.
The researchers saw parallels between the Permian crisis and man-made climate change.
“The predicament faced by this species is a direct result of the global warming climate crisis, so they really have no choice but to adapt or go extinct. This is evidenced by their brief persistence despite these conditions, but says paleontologist and study co-author Pia Viglietti of the Museum of Art Field in Chicago: “They eventually disappeared one by one.”
Viglietti added, “Unlike our Permian ancestors, we actually have the ability to do something to prevent this kind of ecosystem crisis from happening again.”
(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
2023-05-22 20:42:52
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